The Fantasy Fan November 1933 Read online

  Throw in a few space ships, a couple fights, a shot in the dark, fouror five corpses, a high official who turns traitor, a last flight forhelp, and end it up with a lone man battling hundreds. Mix thoroughly,and type out on paper, forgetting to double space your lines, as alleditors request that you doublespace, thereby showing them that youare really original.

  No plot is needed, as mentioned in paragraph one, but if you want one,read one of Grimm's Fairy Tales, and borrow a plot. It makes nodifference what kind, as they are all fairy tales, anyway. As a finalbit of advice, fold the manuscript several times, and send it to theeditor with no enclosed postage for its return. By doing this theeditor will not have to go to the trouble of returning it to you, and,so long as the Chief Waste Paper Basket Monitor doesn't get snoopy andstart reading the refuse, there will be no ill effects onanyone--(providing the editor hadn't read it in the first place--andin the case that he did--well, there's places for people like that.New editors are cheap nowadays, anyway.)

  FAMOUS FANTASY FANS

  2--Conrad H. Ruppert

  Heart disease was CHR's means of becoming introduced to sciencefiction. Confined to bed he was given a copy of Science and Inventionwhich he read and re-read many times, liking its science fictionstory, "The Man on the Meteor" by Ray Cummings, best of all. He neverlost one whit of his interest in fantasy fiction, and has become akeen judge of what is best in this field.

  Always retiring in nature, he first came to notice in a vigorouscampaign he conducted for increasing the membership of theInternational Scientific Association, and for innovating a ScienceFiction Week. Hugo Gernsback was so pleased with this latter idea, andwith CHR's work in trying to put it over, that CHR was awarded a $50prize in the "What I Have Done for Science Fiction" contest thatScience Wonder Quarterly conducted at that time.

  His pet idea for many years was to issue a science fiction fanmagazine. The Depression decided him upon the desperate expedient oflaunching the SCIENCE FICTION DIGEST without adequate preparation.Unwilling to take any credit for the work he appointed Maurice Z.Ingher as the Digest's editor, but when Mr. Ingher was forced toresign because of other duties, he reluctantly took the editorship.There is plenty of testimony to satisfy all as to the success he hasattained with his little magazine, the SCIENCE FICTION DIGEST.

  As for his age, and other personal points, he is 21, unmarried, andconsiders life quite thrilling. He is a printer by occupation, beingone of the partners of the ARRA Printers, who have given the fansseveral science fiction pamphlets.

  Though he declares he is not modest, he cannot be convinced that hehas done anything unusual. It is his courage and determination thathas carried the 'Science Fiction Digest' through the rough spots ofits career, and it is stern judgement that selects the articles andstories which so please the readers of SFD, or FANTASY Magazine, as itwill be called.

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  The word "weird" as meaning bizarre probably originated with EdgarAllan Poe, who was one of the greatest coiner of words. Is his poem"Ulalume," he speaks of the country of "Weir" from which the word"weird" was derived to describe anything horrible or unique.

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  Come over to "Our Readers Say" and "The Boiling Point" and join in thecomment. We always like to get letters from our readers.

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  Send in your comments on the current issue. We want to know your likesand dislikes. That is the only way we can supply you with the kind ofmaterial you like.

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  Subscribe now and insure yourself of a monthly copy. Only a limitednumber are printed.

  CELEBRITIES I'VE MET

  by Mortimer Weisinger

  Dr. T. O'Conor Sloane--who wishes he were related to the owner of'Sloan's Liniment.'

  * * * * *

  Hugo Gernsback--who, when commended for his ability to turn out neweditorials month after month, modestly shrugged it off with: "It's allin the day's work."

  * * * * *

  Harry Bates--who evasively answers all questions pertaining to theidentity of Anthony Gilmore by saying, "I'll speak only upon advicefrom my counsel."

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  A. Merritt--who, though he is perhaps the greatest man I have everknown, is incredibly unaffected for a person with his success.

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  Dr. David Henry Keller--who can tell a story almost better than he canwrite, as witness the tale, "The Dead Woman," told to me in his roomat the Hotel New Yorker.

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  Mrs. David Keller--who enjoys piquing one's curiosity when quizzedabout the name of the magazine for which her husband writes under anom-de-plume.

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  Angelica Keller--who is the 'Angelica' of scores of Keller stories,and upon whom Dr. Keller's story, "A Pyschological Experiment," wasbased.

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  Abner Joseph Gelula--who gleefully claims that he wishes the moviemagnates would buy each of his stories for the movies, as they did"Automaton."

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  Miss Florence Bothner, Dr. Sloane's capable secretary, who rightlyinsists that Bob Olsen is the wittiest s-f writer.

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  Leo Morey--one of the most handsome chaps of the science fiction gang,and perhaps the slickest dresser of them all.

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  H. W. Wesso--who confesses that he knows less about technical sciencesthan Homer Eon Flint knows of the sequel to "The Blind Spot."

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  Miss Miriam Bourne--whose pet diversion is telling Dr. Keller that heis not a real author, in the true sense of the word, although shetells friends that Doctor Keller is the greatest of them all, when heisn't around!

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  Arthur J. Burks--who reeled off his five thousand word part for theserial, COSMOS, in exactly two hours! I vas dere, Sharlie.

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  Gawain Edwards,--who when asked to pay only one dollar as initiationfee for membership in the old Scienceers, slapped it down with suchcontempt as if to say, "What Pikers!"

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  Charles D. Hornig, a New Jerseyite, who wishes there were dozens ofClark Ashton Smiths and also dozens of H. P. Lovecrafts.

  UNUSUAL STORIES

  The new magazine of fantastic fiction presents such stories as:

  "The White Sybil" by Clark Ashton Smith

  "Countries in the Sea" by August W. Derleth

  "The Sixth Sense" by Stanton A. Coblentz

  "On Board the Space-Ship Terra" by L. A. Eshbach

  "The Strange Case of Tony Rizutti" by Ralph Milne Farley

  "The Doom that Came to Sarnath" by H. P. Lovecraft

  "Tharda, Queen of Vampires" by Richard Tooker

  "The Garden of Fear" by Robert E. Howard

  "Mars Colonizes" by Miles J. Breuer, M.D.

  "When the Waker Sleeps" by Cyril G. Wates

  "The Torch of Life" by Joe W. Skidmore

  "The Ogre of Space" by Manly Wade Wellman

  "A Diamond Asteroid" by Lowell H. Morrow

  "Binding de Lux" by Dr. David H. Keller

  "Master of Matter" by Amelia Reynolds Long

  "The Titan" by P. Schuyler Miller

  "Synthetic" by Harl Vincent

  and others.

  Subsc
ribe now: Single copy: 20--Three months: 50--eight mo.:$1.00--year: $1.50

  Special offers to be withdrawn soon.

  Published by Fantasy Publications, Everett, Pa.

  QUINTESSENCE OF QUINN: a quarter of a hundred unique Jules de Grandintales from Weird, $1. One selection only, for some Quinn fan. List ofother fantasies, stf, for stamp. Forrest J. Ackerman, 530 StaplesAvenue, San Francisco, California.

  FOR SALE: Back numbers of all science fiction magazines. Send for freelist. Charles' Book Haven, 238 Seventh Ave., New York, N.Y.

  CLARK ASHTON SMITH presents THE DOUBLE SHADOW AND OTHER FANTASIES--abooklet containing a half-dozen imaginative and atmospherictales.--Stories of exotic beauty, glamor, terror, strangeness, ironyand satire. Price: 25 cents each, (coin or stamps). Also a smallremainder of EBONY AND CRYSTAL--a book of prose poems published at$2.00, reduced to $1.00 per copy. Everything sent postpaid. ClarkAshton Smith, Auburn, California.

  SCIENCE FICTION DIGEST

  will be known as

  FANTASY MAGAZINE

  The Digest of Imaginative Literature

  beginning with its

  January, 1934 issue

  COSMOS, and all the other SFD will be continued in FANTASY.

  Subscription rates remain the same, 25 cents for 3 months, 50 centsfor 6 months, $1. per year.

  Science Fiction Digest Company 87-36 162nd Street Jamaica, New York

  Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been correctedwithout note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text havebeen retained as printed.

  Words printed in bold are marked with tildes: ~bold~.